Let's talk about Launch and the Problems faced

[Madcombat]

Part 1: Administration

Administrating a 75 slot server isnt usually easy, it can be a mess. Hell, I've been there and done it and some have it harder then others. For a owner or a manager it's easy, you know your own limitations whilst for a regular admin- its harder. You ask yourselves questions like:
"Whats our stance on roleplayed combat? Is /roll acceptable?"
"Is names like Tyrone Biggums really acceptable?"
"This dude is screaming nigga in the plaza? Is he roleplaying legitly? Do my superiors or fellow admins agree he's roleplaying legitly?"
"One guy is on a roof praising Jesus Christ in the middle of a S2K, is he trolling or legit?"
"Huh- a guy is being curb stomped infront of a CCA camera outside the Train Station and a Camera is watching? Do I have the authority to intervene?"
"Wow, theres 20 people all moving in one direction around the map, they've stuck together since they joined and home in locations together like a pack. Are they legit roleplayers or just a bunch of organised trolls?"


Theres times to take things seriously as well as times not to take things seriously. On one hand you have a group of players who're aggressive in their argument but mean no harm in their rp and they are actually alright at roleplaying and don't cause much trouble outside political drama. On the other hand you might have people who're offensive OOC'ly but again, they arent doing it to be offensive but just to have a laugh only for others to scream they need to be curtailed because it "Offends" them where in reality they're only doing it because the dude is screaming about how offensive it is to them and they find that ludicrus because in reality, these are just words and not infact hurting anyone.

There is also somthing more innocent however- a player that's new to roleplay and is pushing boundries to know his place. They name themselves Tyrone Deeznutz, can barely type, play a black guy, have a bad description if not any and are genuinely easy to figure out because they're doing everything lopsided.

But then theres a specific type of player who'll push boundries "Tyrone Niggums" who has a perfectly well defined description, roleplays properly but spends all his time beating people up and causing IC disturbances with his crew of "Bob Goods" and "I'm roleplaying as a newbie but I am actually in a discord with 10 other players trying to troll the server and I know how to clearly manipulate admins because I myself have administrated in communities myself and know how to do shit. Why do I do it? Because it's fucking funny."

Launch had a majority of the former players in it and most of the players that wanted to actually roleplay and enjoy the community were stuck waiting for a player to leave, including admins and civil protection players as well. Sadly, not many of these players who were on the server with the intent to just cause disruption were identified or yet I don't even know if some admins were even feeling secure to do anything to do anything about them.

These people were Brazen- Really brazen and yet very little was actually done about them.


Time for a quick history lesson.

Back in the good ol' golden days of 2011, what we concidered a lolwebel was just a dude who was too eager to join the resistance and fight. Today, you concider lolwebels to be people who scream in a apartment "FUCK THE COMBINE, ALEX JONES THIS SHIT. DESTROY THE REGIME RAAAAAAAAAAA!" - In my day, we called these people simply minges. They werent even close to what people concider a lolwebel is today. We barely tolerated these people, they're -clearly- cancer. At most you might call them a newbie, nothing to ban right? But damn, somthing clearly to administrate.
(Yeah, these people didnt get even administrative talking to's from my perspective as a player. This kind of behavior went on from the same people for hours undisrupted)

Back in the Good Ol' Golden Days of 2011, a Mingebag was someone who joined your server and just started prop serfing/punching randomly/RDMing/Mic Spamming/Etc
Today it's recognised as part of the "New player" group. New players don't join servers to just be obnoxius (Some do, but they're a high minority.) New Players make mistakes without KNOWING they're making a mistake. A Mingebag will be chaotic to just be chaotic. A Troll will be lawful and Chaotic, he'll play both cards to fuck with you to do it longer, such is the art of trolling.

-End History Lesson.



Know the type of player and know what they're attempting to do is usually painted obviously on the face of his actions.

Got a player called Tyrone Deeznuts? Yeah he's unlikely new, he's just here to fuck with you. His description is good and his name choice is bizzare, he's here to fuck with you.

Got a Player who's running around beating people up and being a nuisence? PM him and figure out if he's actually new or just a chaotic douchebag trying to cause trouble. If he's the chaotic varient, jet him from the server.

Got a player who's doing bad shit but appears receptive to your administration? Woooah you might have a new roleplayer, congratulations. Lay down the law and give leniancy. Set him on the path and if he fails- jet him from the server.

All of this never happened, why?

Well, I have a theory, that theory is that it's normal in the communities many of you came from to treat all of this as mostly acceptable (It's not btw, it's cancer and you should've caught on by now. Theres a reason most of the communities you came from died and had terrible quality in them.) But I am not entirely sure that's the issue, I rp'd with many of you game masters and found some of the rp wasnt too bad- so what was the issue here?

You're too lenient, you guys appear to not want to be that guy who slams that hammer eagerly on someones fingers and tells them to get the fuck out.

-You have to-
-If you don't, it's over, all that script work goes to waste. All that lore writing? Yeah it goes to waste.-

Please have less tolerance for bullshittery because you're only going to let assholes who have no respect for the effort you've put into the community and the money sunk into the community enjoy it more then the audiance you -want- to enjoy it.


Part 1.2 - The break Down of Why the Above is bad

I'll give you guys a very real example of today and why it's bad. Some of you GM's tried to run what seemed to be a event of a hostage situation? In the end a Judgement waiver was called. There is issues with this event but I'll explain those issues in Part 2-

When a JW is called, every citizen relocated to a apartment block, this means you get situations where you now have ALL of the trolls and minges mixed in with the roleplayers who're taking things seriously and their entire experiance of the event is no longer in the hands of roleplay but in the hands of how well behaved the Minges/Trolls are going to be.

We had people in the apartments being punch whored, spat on, racist remarks made out of place randomly, odd comments etc. No one was able to focus on your potentially good event admins because our attention the entire time was focused on what wasnt being administrated: The Trolls/Minges.

*CLAP*

Okay, heres another example of why the above is bad.

A new serious roleplayer joins the server, he's heard of good things about Willard and is impressed by the script etc etc. He spawns, takes a step outside the station only to see punch whoring, citizens surrounding MPF who're forced to fire on citizens indiscriminately because of the situation placed upon them by lack of administration on these nelfarious elements. Player then decides that the server is shit because the MPF appear clearly shit and that the playerbase seems clearly shit. He disconnects and never rejoins. You never see what he may've produced which could've been great. He also goes on to tell his friends to avoid the community depriving the community of other potentially great players who could've also contributed.

*CLAP*

Heres a new example.

A player is trying to play a loyalist, he approches the CCA to report information but is ENTIRELY ignored because the CCA has to deal with mingebags.
Said player just gives up.

The example here is special, notice how said player isnt DIRECTLY affected by the Minges but instead by the CCA because the CCA is so focused on the trolls/minges. His experiance is fucked INDIRECTLY by the negative elements.

*CLAP*

Heres a final PERSONAL experiance of mine.

Spend months organising a resistance group, hype the server up and advertise the server even for those who don't intend to play -my side-.

Join the server with them only to have them become disillusioned by what they are seeing despite the praise I lavished on the server.
This would've been my experiance IF I didnt repeatedly pre-warn them that day 1 was going to be a shit-fest and reduce that expectation for the first week. I wonder how many people did exactly what I did but didnt reduce such expectations.

----

You can see how disruptive this issue can be, please figure it out and solve it. I know I come across as harsh but only because I want this community to succeed. I'm not willing to argue with any of you that think there was any sort of disruptive elements, just please fix it. I have faith that you guys will do so.



Part 2 - All about Citizen rp but eh.. not really lol
Look, I'm not going to sugar coat you guys with this one. I've got to give the criticism raw and unfiltered and I personally don't want to be the one that says it- but fuck I got to say it.

For Months you guys have talked about "Citizen Centric roleplay and Events UNLIKE all the other servers out there in existance and if Willard is going to be unique for anything it's going to be that. "

This has been the mantra of many of the Game-Masters I've spoken to and well- great. Back it up. Because you barely did on Day 1 for your opening event and please do forgive me, I'm not trying to be a dick though I feel like I am. (Probably because I am a dickhead but I divulge)

You opened the server with rounding up all the citizenry for inspecting, you had them form lines and then go to the medical tents for inspections of a sickness. This intrigued me personally but then it just disappeared, the opening event ended like that. We were told about a strange potential sickness and it was over. "Maybe more later" I thought, it wasnt that bad in the sense of plot development after all. A climbing 5/10 for me, not bad, not terrible, but not great either. More informative then anything.

From here out however? Let's face it, it consisted of CCA vs "Rebels?" and that pretty much was it for the rest of the night.
I believe the CCA also got a chance to shoot necrotic elsewhere on the map where citizens couldn't even see what was happening, it was all background for us. Not a single bit of it was interactive. It was focused entirely on what you guys claimed you'd never focus heavily on doing- and you did it PLENTY on day 1 for the opening event. I guess I expected a little more from you guys since you made a big thing about wanting to focus on the citizenry.

And don't go "Oh there's plenty of things for the citizenry, like businesses!"

My entire goal upon joining was to run a bar and I joined to find a GM running a bar and for the Bar to be locked up for the rest of the Night after said GM left. (No Shade naturally on said GM, You RP'd fine. it's just that place could've been opened for regular players to run after said GM left.) but it wasn't. I wonder how many players had such experiences like myself where they couldn't even make roleplay centric hubs for citizenry.



Heres another example of somthing that irked me, one of my Resistance Operators was involved in this and I asked him to not make a big deal about it OOC'ly and to play respectfully due to the situation.

**Clap - Begin Story - Clap**
A character is in the apartments, he hears argueing on the 2nd floor and investigates naturally. He reaches the floor and finds that there is claims of a item being stolen from a apartment. Naturally he intervenes being the good individual he is on the side of the person who stole from him. A man who is the culprit minge pushes him out of the way and jumps 20ft down the stairs to ground level and runs off with his "I'm a great sprinter lol and a great fighter!" description. Suddenly, CP's burst into the scene, they move up the stairs and force those involved into the room where a 9mm pistol is found in the trash in said room. Meanwhile associates of mine observed from across the Hall where the MPF then open up on -everyone- in said room with the 9mm in the trash killing everyone.

Now, you can argue this makes sense for the MPF, but does it make for good roleplay? Well apparently not, because this is how the next scene played out.
My informants decide to use the situation to our advantage, we could acquire Social Credit points to push the loss of a operator to our advantage and as we witnessed the man leave the crime scene, we decide it is time to inform on said man. After all- it's for the greater good.

We approach the MPF, inform them about information intending to push our position in society only for it to go.... no where. No where at all.

Fun for one side- not really that fun for the other. Remember I told some people to take that on the chin rather then get annoyed and may I please remind you of the mantra you as a team have said for a while now. "We want to push citizen roleplay." but in this case, you killed it. Literally.

Who left that 9mm there? Why? Who were the people involved? What was the purpose of it? What was the plan of it's use?

We will now never know, did that Thief steal somthing more valuable from that room? We will never know and it will never matter to a ordinary citizen and his plot.

Please take more care with these kinds of things.


I don't intend to nitpick, I have zero intention of that. These are my core issues of Launch, please solve them.
Let's hope the best for tomorrow.

 

[Kawakun]

Being someone who has actively taken part in the community for a couple of years now, since the TeslaCloud days, it is saddening to see how the launch went, but at the same time, I wasn't all too surprised. I have literally no experience in being charge of a server with a huuuge community behind it, however coming from an average player's perspective, I feel like not much preparations were done for the 'ifs', and rather, we were more prepared for the 'whens', which I think needs a general improvement overall. To put it simply, in preparation for an event like this with important event characters, what needs to be thought about are questions along the lines of "What might happen when this character dies?", because whilst we were prepared for the event as it was laid out we obviously didn't know what to do when something unexpected diverts the layout of the event entirely, which is worrying to say the least.

As a criticism, I will say that whenever we do any big event such as this again, there needs to be a plan B. Otherwise, the unexpected can make an event, like what happened here, play out much much worse than originally intended. I'm hoping that in the future, each event is ironed out fully. It's funny to mention too, because Short Stories executed it way way better, and whilst it's wildly more different than the main server, main server events can still learn from SS' handling of storytelling with multiple paths in an event depending on what happens. Even if it's not intended to happen, there needs to be a plan in place for if it does.

 

[Stinky Rags]

First of all, I'd like to heartfully thank @Madcombat for his long and detailed description of why the server didn't go as we all had hoped; quite clearly to me, it's one of the rare few examples that beautifully show how players that don't have a thousand ranks or have been in a community for years and years can still be just as appreciative of a community, or a server. Bravo man, I'm really happy you took the time out to write this letter of concern, hope to see you In-game soon.

Some of my points do Echo theirs, however, I also have my own shared experiences. I'll avoid it being as long as I don't want to clog this great forum post with a lot of walls of text, but I'll also do my own experience justice.

Picture me, happy and excited to join the server, eagerly waiting to be told the password has gone down. Finally, it does, I'm -hyped-, I've not been in the community too long afterall, I connect and I'm met with the *Brilliant* character creation screen, zero faults there, bravo to those that worked on it.

Then... I get into the server.

I'm clipped inside someone straight off the bat, the lag is absolutely awful and a CP immediately goes like. "Get out of here!" - Or something; yeah, CPs are definitely CPs, but mate I just logged in and I'm getting my bearings lmao.

Anyway, the inspection was fun, the interview was great - props to the guy that interviewed me, I enjoyed it heartily and the guy was a good Roleplayer. I can't say I wanted anything else to improve on that score, other than the fact I was promised a job interview later with another person and it never happened. But after that? I walked out and a CP told me I can do what I wanted, so I did; for a while, I walked around doing nothing... by the start at least, minging seemed to be rather limited. I saw a few stupid names here and there but they left me alone, I eventually found myself going to the cafe.

The Cafe owner portrayed a brilliant character, and the people -inside- the cafe were brilliant characters too. Some roguish, some mysterious, some charming, some absolutely hatable in an IC way, great stuff. I know a few of the people who shared an interest in staying away from the minges hid in that cafe for a lot of the time the server was up, it was one of the few safe havens for the citizen-starters anyway from what I could see.

Throughout all this, there is a constant stream of lag, also a constant stream of bullets. I thought this was a part of the atmosphere at first, and I know we all Roleplayed it pretty seriously... ah, but it wasn't so serious :> I go outside eventually to see what else the server had up for offer and I just see minges, literally, everywhere. They're climbing up Combine ladders, running across roofs, jumping off high places to get to the Anti-Citizen zone. Punch whoring, N-word spam, ignoring emote actions towards them etc. The CPs are just clumped together, either spraying them down like madmen (EIther due to no admin helping, or them assuming they wouldn't.) or just not doing anything, clumped together as a group.

I'm aware that the CPs here are meant to be undertrained, however word of mouth and my friend's experience says they were stupidly unprofessional, talking about gay sex for example (this could very much be false, but I thought I'd raise it if logs are searched.) - In a stupid way, as well as them just seeming to be largely a cliche of the old 2011 servers, a couple were more believable sure, but that was a minority.

Thanks to some great GMing from a few staff members me and others were able to handle a stabbing that resulted in a death; one of the group disarmed the stabber, whilst I and another got him down, another got the CP. Did we get any rewards for this heroic, selfless behaviour? Not at all, we got told to go away, essentially. I'm aware that rewards aren't always the catalyst of action, but if taking down an anti-citizen because the CPs were too slow to stop a murder spree isn't noteworthy I don't think anything will be; again, I don't think this is CP's being Icly slow and untrained, that's an OOC thing. They didn't know what to do.

I'd like to say here the music scores by the Staff were flawless; I loved all the sounds they introduced, and the music choices were amazing. (I love CP violation but don't appreciate it being spammed nyeheheh). The strider sounds were absolutely nerve-wracking, and the actual prop placements and building of the map were impeccable, hats off there too!

Lag... so much lag though.

With all the mingery going on I think I saw one guy get kicked, and he was a guy roleplaying with us. An Admin teleported him to ask if he was rping having his foot broken or he'd have to kick him, despite the guy literally rping with us about his foot being broken. Like, what? This sort of stuff can sour people really quickly; I'm personally not as upset by it, although it does paint a really shitty picture when instead of being pmed, or just looking for themselves, they abuse the tp system and just kinda break up the RP we were having.

Cream of the crop though was the hostage event. I and the group I was with personally had a great time (Speaking for myself ofc), we were with a young Vortigaunt slave and there was a lot of dynamics, the only thing I noticed personally was when one of us was trying to interact with the situation, a CP OOCly just turned around mid gunfight and locked the combine door. Sure, I doubt the guy with me was going to try and join the anti-citizens, but what if he was? Maybe he was going to kick the Combine forward or cause a commotion to get them killed; nah, just OOC lock the door bro, we cant let those citizens participate in the event other than cowering in a corner with no one to RP with but themselves, right? It was a minor thing compared to what I've heard but it's a catalyst of a lot of problems; I think Minging was definitely a problem for a lot of people, but so were a majority of the CPs as well.

I hear that the CPs were bhopping in that fight, and they literally murdered a CA. Sure, IC negligence or OOC, regardless, that should be a dewhitelist I'm pretty sure. An execution, or off-world reassignment... they killed a CA, I hope none get away with the act because the Combine ICly, at least to my character, looked like a bunch of asses - they got themselves handed by a ragtag group with smgs and 9mms and their own protection teams did the job for them. Combine is all for appearances, and they looked Weak there... doesn't mean RP can't be made of it though, It'd be nice to see. A show of strength, and punishment, to those that failed their Unionific cause.

Overall I think my experiences personally on launch were good; I had atmosphere despite the minges (I got away from them). Good Roleplay, good character development and ran into zero technical glitches, for a Gmod server that's pretty damn incredible, big props to the developers. But the minging and CP problem both from what I saw and heard are the biggest things for me, besides the obvious lag. I've always considered the CP to be the roleplayers that can roleplay the best; a detailed description for example can be detailed without giving away details of their person. A kevlar doesn't suggest personality, trait or gender, neither does the way they walk, how their voice comes through the vo-coder. Just having a description like 'A regular CP with boots' is really painful when you have other people giving their heart out to full proper descriptions.. who were also a CP. Don't get me wrong, Civil Protection are villains, they do bad stuff and get away with it; I agreed somewhere about a post that said that edgy characters do exist, and indeed they do, edgy CPs certainly do as well.. but I wouldn't say any of that was roleplayed Sincerely, it felt like abashed cruelty from incompetent protection teams that were either disguised anti-citizens or literally had a death wish. Ultimately, CPs are the face of the server; they're what citizens usually turn too for help, for work, for protection. They're also the only antagonistic force citizens, rebels and vorts have to face save for OTA... so they need to have both the quality of Roleplay, and as well as a character; not all are going to stand there taut shouldered shouting isolate every two minutes, some may have a moment of kindness - or cruelty, a personal opinion of something that shoulders their actions. These are better ways of showing the CPs to be flawed then, say, gunning down the CA.

I'd like to also offer my personal thanks to Hiros and Mullin on launch. Discord was a cess pit and they were the only two doing anything; Hiros answered my request for the spam (and people ignoring Mullin, a community manager). And Mullin, of course, being the lone soldier spraying them all down with mutes, god bless you, you beautiful bastard.

I think if moderators had a more active role in the discord, and of course in the game to combat the minging problem, that immediately makes things ease up. I'm not saying staff didn't do anything, of course, they did, there were some active on the scoreboard and I can't know everything that happened yesterday... but god, there either needs to be more of them, or they need to be sterner with punishments in my opinion. If minges are kicked, well, maybe that super good future Staff member who's just wanted to try out this new server could get in, rather than Tyrone 'ChicagoFeast' Fanton who just keeps shouting that he needs a shit and he's going to beat up the CPs because they don't support BLM, right?

Look forward to today guys, hope things are as fun as they were yday, if not more.


P.S: People should die if they're head shot by a gun.
P.S.S: I'd have loved to see the TBC which was advertised, it's one of the main reasons I joined!

Big Fatty.

 

[CNS]

the opening event was the worst I've ever seen and cops were generally unapproachable and annoying

 

[mottle]

Great work on the critique @Madcombat, It is definitely important that we ensure that the administration teams are getting the optimal feedback required in order to better assess the server and roleplay dynamic more thoroughly, As they say, "A closed mouth does not get fed."

Sustainments​

Being on the server for a few hours yesterday during the launch I can say the experience was pretty decent. There were a variety of characters that I spoke to that felt genuine, sincere, and realistic. Cliques and groups were made which is to be expected when a good formula is brewing between avid roleplayers.

A portion of the Civil Protection members actually showed engagement to average civilians whether if it's through guiding, acknowledging, and even helping (Props to the one member for giving me the gauze to help with my head wound). It's stuff like that while rare can provide a definite image for new and returning roleplayers.

Improvements

​

The problems that I saw during the experience was definitely the groups that I know for a fact were only here to troll and upset the flow of the events. Seeing the stereotypical tyrones shuffling around streets intentionally causing unneeded altercations was definitely an immersion breaker and before anyone says that any kind of dynamic like this can happen, yes it can but in this situation it was in bad taste and not conducive to the scenario that was going on.

Gamemasters, moderators, and administrators do need to step up and ensure that they are banning these trolls to free up space for roleplayers that actually want to have a unique experience. Continuing to allow these bad players to roam around and cause trouble to others only sets a narrative that it is tolerable and nothing will be done. Acknowledging these behaviors is just as important as the players reporting these behaviors to @help.

Summary
​

I most certainly believe that the administrators should allow a select amount of average players such as @Madcombat to join on these meetings to provide another viewpoint from someone with no powers or relative influence to the community. This is something that I have not seen other communities do before or to a better extent in its purpose. Also we need to buckle down and assess the situations between actual serious roleplayers and "trolls" and act accordingly to ensure a proper gameplay experience.

Thank you.

 

[NicoleKidman69]

Just having a description like 'A regular CP with boots' is really painful when you have other people giving their heart out to full proper descriptions who were also a CP.

Sadly Civil Protection here quite literally aren't allowed anything that makes them stand out or be unique in their description. Personally I wouldn't really bother writing out a full detailed desc I know nobody is going to read, and if I can't show an ounce of creativity in the one line people are going to read then that seems counter-productive, y'know?

I have literally no experience in being charge of a server with a huuuge community behind it, however coming from an average player's perspective, I feel like not much preparations were done for the 'ifs', and rather, we were more prepared for the 'whens'.

Speaking as someone who's partaken in large opening events of this scale across several communities, I can tell you now that having things go this badly wrong and the complete lack of a capacity to differentiate minges from serious roleplayers on your opening night is not only something that shouldn't be expected, but it really can't be excused. This isn't a random event; this was months of hype that was supposed to become the springboard for the community - and it flopped, for the most.

This had months of planning put into it and yet the most basic tenants of running a server somehow got missed? This feels like all of the actual work went into making WN look good and nobody stopped to think "how will we handle disruptions?" and that is an incredibly bad sign. That isn't how you run a community.

Also one final thing: players being kicked for "reserve slots" because the staff team didn't think to get on before the server launched is bad. Don't do that.

 

[Shirumic]

I didn't get to spend too much time during the event, but I'd like to raise the criticism that herding 60 players all in the same place is difficult both for staff and civil protection. This was only made worse by the decision to restart and open the server to the public without CPs being allowed to set themselves up and ready themselves for dealing with problems.

Throughout my experiences in the event, the civil protection faction was consistently overwhelmed with the number of incidents they had to respond to, both natural ones created by players and events created by staff. For many of us it was the first day on Willard's server outside of the dev test a few months ago. We rarely had the chance to respond and handle citizens passively because we were in a constant state of emergency trying to keep the terminal from becoming ancap land.

 

[Merlinsclaw]

I had fun.

 

[Manio]

based

 

[Equinox]

Both are the problem in this case, precisely because its a core tenant of the community and one leads to the other. When you have no brakes or guard rails you're going to keep slamming into these problems. As I've said these issues are far deeper reaching than I think anyone realises right now.

In addition most of the players I saw weren't your stereotypical minges who ran around punching people - they were roleplayers who knew how to skirt the systems in place and I'm frankly not confident WN will be able to pick them out and handle them because its literally their core ethos to allow people to make whatever choice they want.

And hell, this in-and-of-itself is going to burn out the GM's and staff team more than anything else.



This is a good example.

Would you (speaking broadly) ban these players because they chose to attack someone? You've already set the standard here mugging other citizens is fine and acceptable in the rules. Is this different somehow? Why? When will you step in and for what reason?

Letting your server be a canvas is exactly how you give these people justification to avoid being banned. They're not acting in ways you yourselves haven't set the server up to allow, beyond the obvious trolls.

The observations of the server didn't show that freedom or creativity was an issue. Keep in mind that freedom and creativity doesn't mean blatantly disregarding rules. As Madcombat said, it's a matter of quality control, not forcing players down certain routes because it benefits some other setup. During Willard Networks' Short Stories events, it showed that giving the player the ability to roleplay what they wish was completely possible and doable. It's been done before, and those events were held in high regard. You're confusing this freedom of roleplay with simply cracking down on minges.

As for the smuggler, I'll honestly say that it should be allowed to ride out, and even happen again in the future if citizens so choose. It is not fair to place the burden of running a good event on the player aside from the bare minimum of following basic rules. If citizens choose to kill the person that is part of the plot, it is on the staff to come up with a back up plan or an alternative to advancing the plot. Once again, WN Short Stories showed that player freedom of RP is completely possible, even in extreme cases where players may suddenly murder important plot characters.

It's on the staff to enforce rules and accomodate RP, not railroading players and essentially forcing their hand.

 

[Equinox]

todays the last day
-make sure theres no stupid ass characters + descriptions (theres been like 5 already from what i've seen.)
-make sure staff actually fucking staff
-encourage high quality roleplay
hope everything was already solved but still a suggestion
i want hl2rp not hl2darkrp

also to CP leads
make sure your cops arent absolute S2K goblins

Honestly the fixes really come down to this. John dee really summed it up. Deal with bad players (DEDICATED STAFF WHO BESTOW QUICK JUDGEMENT), and encourage high quality RP through the use of GMs who are ready to accomodate alternatives and work AROUND a character's choice rather than play a puppeteer.

As for CP, I wasn't there monitoring them 24/7, but I'll generally say that if some minge walks up to a CA and starts minge punching them, the first reaction shouldn't be to deal with them like an average player but instead to call the admin. I'm not sure if CPs were following this, but it's a common problem I use to see back then.

As for the event itself? I'd say it's expected. The real testament is that we weren't immediately fucked over by DDOS' and no rogue staff. This is promising because it ensures that we have a stable server with a reliable team ready to act. These issues, while thankfully criticized and observed, are minor in the long run and easily fixable. I'd consider this a success in the end.

 

[Nick]

Honestly it wasn't that bad for me as a "doctor", I could ignore most of the worst mingery and had a good time with my coworkers and with healing people trying to grind my medical XP so I can actually use medical items because for some reason a character who's invested 5 points into intelligence and 3 into agility still cannot use a simple FAK or combine medikit.

Still though, the queue was bad. I had to wait for nearly 5 hours before even getting on, when everything interesting had already happened. Still, got to save someone and do some other cool doctor stuff so I'm happy.

Still think there was a lot of minges that got dealt with like average players, even by staff. They came in and started making a mess of things and people just kept going along with it constantly even though it was clear these people didn't do things to enhance the experience of others. The staff should crack down on minges, hard. Honestly I had a feeling this was going to be a problem since the public test, and at multiple points of my experience on the server the roleplay quality of the test server and the launch did not differ, which is probably not good.

All in all, there were a lot of problems, but I also had fun. I hope things get sorted out and we can actually have a serious experience instead of DarkRP without voice chat.

 

[NicoleKidman69]

The observations of the server didn't show that freedom or creativity was an issue. Keep in mind that freedom and creativity doesn't mean blatantly disregarding rules. As Madcombat said, it's a matter of quality control, not forcing players down certain routes because it benefits some other setup. During Willard Networks' Short Stories events, it showed that giving the player the ability to roleplay what they wish was completely possible and doable. It's been done before, and those events were held in high regard. You're confusing this freedom of roleplay with simply cracking down on minges.

My point is more that eventually those two sides are going to intersect, and intersect hard - and not in a way that is going to be beneficial for the community. As I said a few posts back the most damaging people for any community are those that work within the limits set and twist them to their own ends rather than the "Bob Goods" who get banned for fucking around and being a minge.

And unfortunately WN has exactly the setup that lets them justify almost anything negative you can think of. I can justify running around mugging people for scripts because it is legal within the rules and can use it as a shield against the worst a staff members can do to me in most cases. There's a reason why mugging other players is banned in a lot of other communities.

"Anyone can be anything total freedom" is great in principle, and it works in events. It does not work on an open scale server of the size WN is trying to be. And frankly, this dovetails into my next issue with this whole thing-

Honestly it wasn't that bad for me as a "doctor", I could ignore most of the worst mingery and had a good time with my coworkers and with healing people trying to grind my medical XP so I can actually use medical items because for some reason a character who's invested 5 points into intelligence and 3 into agility still cannot use a simple FAK or combine medikit.

This in and of itself seems entirely backwards and I really have no clue why 'skills' are a foundational core of a server where you are meant to have this freedom, because this is counter to that idea.

If I want to play a trained doctor with experience? I have to lean hard into the medical skill. I can't just roleplay knowledge and using items because I physically can't use those items on WN if I don't. Nick's character isn't stupid IC as based on his intelligence stats, but the skill tells him he's incapable. And I'm aware this goes doubly so for weapons, which people would be idiots to not spec hard into.

As far as I am aware too skills slowly grind up through use - but how are rebels meant to routinely use their guns to be able to use bigger guns? It isn't hard for the Combine side to do so, but where will the reverse come from?

Unless I literally sacrificed common sense and make my character some specialised super-genius, they are going to be deficient. Sure I can use medical items fine, but my character for some reason can't cook or use a gun very well. Why? Not because I'm a good roleplayer, but because the skill system says so.

Imagination and freedom aren't king here, your skill system is.

 

[TacticalToaster]

As for the smuggler, I'll honestly say that it should be allowed to ride out

I agree myself, I wasn't even hurt OOCly when it happened, I was fucking laughing my ass off. The irony of the whole situation was hilarious, and they roleplayed it out so I went with it. The immediate response did create some issues, and I think some better preparation and thinking of "what if's" would've prevented the bumps that came from the response to my character's death.

 

[CNS]

i beat up that stalker char cause i was really bored and then left to eat a pizza

 

[CyckaLoop16]

The server will not last long if this persists, really hope fixes will be made and fix most of it, see yall tomorrow

 

[Cepe6po]

(warning opinion below)

The map change should have happened sooner. Instead WN was kept on the same event map (albeit without any events really going on...?) for a day. In two hour or less, you could have done an event that transitions into C24 while keeping hype & excitement high instead of letting everyone wander around aimlessly.

There should have been an opening event that serves as an introduction to WN, something that starts off with a bang and doesn't drag for too long, gets straight into the action

Cops should have RP'ed with civies (i might be wrong and they did, but i didn't see it) and shown people that cps aren't mindless "<:: isolate ::>" zombies and interact more with civs

just my opinion feel free to criticise

 

[NicoleKidman69]

I hate to keep harping on but I find the fact the event was cut short and the server was locked until tomorrow for the map change an incredibly worrying sign. Despite what the player count suggests, having spoken to some of the staff teams who were willing to be more open there are genuine and serious fundamental issues that need addressing but don't seem to be.

Even in regards to an opening event it just feels odd. You lock the server overnight on the first day then lock it early the second while waiting until 5pm tomorrow for the map change?

The switch feels more like a panicked reaction than anything as a result.

I have to echo @CyckaLoop16; if things don't turn around in a massive way the community isn't going to last more than a couple of months. This wasn't just some mild hurdles to an otherwise great experience, this makes me wonder if the real meat of the work for the past few months hasn't been to make the server look pretty rather than functional.

 

[ZeroPants]

Hello, I was one of the guys that was part of the whole CP mugging situation, (the one where the hostages died and where the JW was caused. It was not an event made by admins or GMs).

The situation had idiots on both ends, the rebels shouldn't have done something like that on the opening day of a server, too many people are untrained and would only end up in a bloodbath.

The CPs that were involved were untrained, yeah, but untrained or not, they were way too trigger-happy, every situation they got involved in resulted in a bloodbath, the cafe got closed down because of them plus a few other situations.

 

[Equinox]

I hate to keep harping on but I find the fact the event was cut short and the server was locked until tomorrow for the map change an incredibly worrying sign. Despite what the player count suggests, having spoken to some of the staff teams who were willing to be more open there are genuine and serious fundamental issues that need addressing but don't seem to be.

Even in regards to an opening event it just feels odd. You lock the server overnight on the first day then lock it early the second while waiting until 5pm tomorrow for the map change?

The switch feels more like a panicked reaction than anything as a result.

I have to echo @CyckaLoop16; if things don't turn around in a massive way the community isn't going to last more than a couple of months. This wasn't just some mild hurdles to an otherwise great experience, this makes me wonder if the real meat of the work for the past few months hasn't been to make the server look pretty rather than functional.

Odd take. The issues present on the launch day were, in the long run, minor, and eventually faded by the second day. In the end, if someone wanted to go find RP, they could have easily done so and had GMs who were almost always available to accomodate RP, even down to the individual. If I wanted to find roleplay myself, it took literally less than 3 minutes.

The server shutdown was primarily so business owners and administration could set up their respective areas. It had nothing much to do at all with current issues which were fixed by the second day.

My point is more that eventually those two sides are going to intersect, and intersect hard - and not in a way that is going to be beneficial for the community. As I said a few posts back the most damaging people for any community are those that work within the limits set and twist them to their own ends rather than the "Bob Goods" who get banned for fucking around and being a minge.

And unfortunately WN has exactly the setup that lets them justify almost anything negative you can think of. I can justify running around mugging people for scripts because it is legal within the rules and can use it as a shield against the worst a staff members can do to me in most cases. There's a reason why mugging other players is banned in a lot of other communities.

"Anyone can be anything total freedom" is great in principle, and it works in events. It does not work on an open scale server of the size WN is trying to be. And frankly, this dovetails into my next issue with this whole thing-

This, along with the rests of your posts that parrot this, are in the end useless. It's pointing at a core philosophy and saying it will simply fail without any real tangible or observable indication as to why it will fail, and then pointing at an incident that has nothing to really do with it and saying that it has everything to do with it.

 

[Lavu]

how much ketamine were you on when you wrote this